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Drusas Achamian
Drusas Achamian is a former Mandate Schoolman and spy. Leading up to and during the Holy War he spied on the Scarlet Spires and the Thousand Temples. Following the Holy War’s conquest of Shimeh, and declaration of Anasûrimbor Kellhus as Aspect-Emperor, he denounced his School, becoming the only Wizard in the Three Seas. Appearance Achamian is somewhat rotund and has a long beard with five streaks of grey or white running down its length. He is said to look nothing like one would expect a sorcerer to look. He is around forty-seven when the Holy War begins. At the beginning of The Judging Eye, he has thinned significantly, his hair is balding and his beard is entirely white. Story ''What Came Before'' Achamian was the son of a fisherman. He worked the nets with his father until the Mandate discovered that he was one of the Few and took him away to receive Mandate training. ''The Darkness That Comes Before'' Drusas Achamian is sent to Sumna to investigate Maithanet, whom he fears could be an agent of the Consult. He resumes an old love affair with a harlot named Esmenet, and recruits his former student, Paro Inrau, to report on Maithanet’s activities.Then Inrau dies under mysterious circumstances. Overcome by guilt and heartbroken by Esmenet’s refusal to cease taking custom, Achamian flees Sumna and travels to Momemn, where the Holy War gathers. When he reaches the encampment, Achamian joins the fire of Krijates Xinemus, who agreed to take him to see another old student of his, Prince Nersei Proyas of Conriya. Achamian implores him to write Maithanet regarding the circumstances of Inrau’s death, but he leaves thinking that his request will go unfulfilled. Anasûrimbor Kellhus arrives. Achamian questions the man, only to find himself utterly disarmed by his humour, honesty, and intellect. He becomes Kellhus’s teacher. Achamian is summoned by Ikurei Conphas to the Imperial Palace to assess a highly placed adviser of his for the Mark of sorcery. The Emperor himself demands to know whether the old man bears the blasphemous taint of sorcery. Achamian sees nothing amiss. Skeaös, however, sees something in Achamian. He begins writhing against his chains, speaking a tongue from Achamian’s ancient dreams. Impossibly, the old man breaks free, killing several before being burned by the Emperor’s sorcerers. Dumbfounded, Achamian confronts the howling Skeaös, only to watch horrified as his face peels apart and opens into scorched limbs … The abomination before him, he realizes, is a Consult spy, one that can mimic and replace others without bearing sorcery’s telltale Mark. A skin-spy. Achamian flees the palace and wanders back to Xinemus’s camp, so absorbed by his horror that he fails to see or hear Esmenet, who has come to rejoin him at long last. ''The Warrior-Prophet'' Achamian is lured to the Sareötic Library, where he is ambushed by the Scarlet Spires. Though he is able to kill two of his attackers, he is captured. On the orders of Hanamanu Eleäzaras, Heramari Iyokus tries to torture Achamian for information, despite the traditional ineffectivity of torture on Mandate sorcerers (due to the imprint of Seswatha within their minds). Krijates Xinemus attempts to rescue Achamian, but becomes captured as well. Iyokus blinds Xinemus and plies him with the Cants of Compulsion in an attempt to break Achamian, but fails. Achamian is able to escape confinement by using a Wathi Doll to break the Uroborian Circle imprisoning him. He kills the Javreh sent to execute him, Mamaradda, and numerous other Javreh and sorcerers in the area. Iyokus summons a Ciphrang, Ankaryotis, which Achamian defeats as well. Achamian and Xinemus travel to Caraskand aboard Meümaras’s ship Amortanea. When he arrives, he finds that Kellhus has been hung from a circumfix as a false prophet and that Esmenet has become Kellhus’s lover. Though filled with hatred at Kellhus for taking Esmenet from him, Achamian saves him when he reveals that he can identify Consult skin-spies. ''The Thousandfold Thought'' Kellhus leads the Holy War to a decisive victory in the Battle of Caraskand, smashing the Kianene forces and killing the Padirajah himself. Achamian follows his pupil, now at the head of the Holy War, towards Shimeh. While The Battle of Shimeh, rages, Achamian does battle with a Ciphrang, Zioz. Victorious, Achamian arrives in Shimeh to witness his former pupil declared Aspect-Emperor of the Three Seas. In front of an audience of all the great lords of the Inrithi and the Grandmaster of the Mandate, Achamian asks Esmenet to leave Kellhus and become his wife, to which Esmenet refuses. Enraged at his pupil's theft of his love, Achamian denounces Kellhus and his school. In parting, Kellhus ominously tells his him that, should he ever come before Kellhus again, he will kneel before him. ''The Judging Eye'' Achamian, now a wizard, lives in exile. He has published a secret history of the Holy War, in which he claims the Aspect-Emperor Anasurimbor Kellhus is a fraud, and a Dûnyain, who has manipulated the hearts of his followers as an adult lording over children. His secret history is censored throughout most of the Three Seas but has gained a following in Zeum, the last great hold-out against the power of the Aspect-Emperor among men. After leaving the Mandate, Achamian's dreams began to change, giving him insights into secrets about Seswatha's life. In dreams, he learns of Ishual and that its location can be found on a map in the Library of Sauglish. He recruits a scalpoi company called the Skin Eaters to accompany him to Sauglish under the false pretense that there are riches in the library's Coffers. Meanwhile, Mimara has located Achamian believing that he is her father and demands that he teach her the Gnosis. He does not believe that she is his daughter and refuses. She persists, and they sleep together. After he leaves for Sauglish, she secretly follows. When the Skin Eaters discover her, Achamian allows her to accompany them. In order to catch up to the Great Ordeal, Achamian, Mimara and the Skin Eaters enter the ancient Nonmen mansion of Cil-Aujas. There they found the mansion overrun by Sranc and Bashrag. Only by the combined might of Achamian, Cleric and the skilled Skin Eaters did they manage to pass through the mansion, out to the Osthwai Mountains' other side. Achamian confides to Mimara that he believes she has the Judging Eye, and hopes to have her judge her adoptive father Anasurimbor Kellhus. ''The White-Luck Warrior'' ''The Unholy Consult'' Notes Category:POV characters Category:Mandate Category:Ketyai Category:Characters from Nron Category:Tutors Category:Gnostic sorcerers Category:Men